Message From The Clergy

Oh great, another 'street brand" has decided to use the 18b Arts District for advertising. We have to admit when we first saw the face of Papa Emeritus from the band Ghost, we were kinda happy cuz its one of our favorite bands. We also were kinda into how this piece was made from tiled screen prints on what looks like shirts from the blemish pile, but it became clear that this image was straight up stolen from the Papaemeritus.com website. Now they are trying to sell them, as well the Guy Fawkes mask made famous by hacker group Anonymous. (Who are actually embroiled in a copywrite dispute over its own logo at the moment, so watch your ass.) It seems that a lot of their stuff is stolen intellectual property that is being hawked as one of a kind pieces, cuz they splashed paint on it. We count at least 8 images on this wall that aren't theirs, but hey you can still buy them! We always marvel at these "street" brands that put up art like once a year, and usually have someone else do it for them. But hey, we are street!!! ...sure, sure you are.

Fear & Pandering

Another wheatpaste piece from Cheyenne Randall in the 18b Arts District, a little further down the street from his Elvis piece and a little sloppier as well. When we saw this piece from afar we initially thought it was Hunter S. Thomson with a shotgun and kinda dug it, but we got up close and saw it was a photo of Britney Spears during her 2007 meltdown. Which makes us wonder, "if you are gonna pander artwork to someone that has a huge show in town, shouldn't it be complimentary?" Oh well, pandering is pandering we guess. This piece seems like it was rushed to be put up in the streets, or they didn't take any care to tile it beforehand and just let the printing edges ride in a few places. Kind of a sloppy job for a high profile artist, but maybe they were rushed like we said previously. Not really an excuse at this point in a career, but hey shit happens.

Happy Holidaze

More new pieces downtown in the Fremont East district from street art duo There She Is and You Killed Me First. There She Is with a huge handpainted Hunter S. Thompson piece, complete with cigarette and his every-present filter. We really love the drips coming off his glasses and the addition of gold paint when hit by the right light makes his sunglasses look mirrored. It makes the whole piece elevated with this special touch, a great idea and look brought to the streets! You Killed Me First joins his partner with pieces on either side of the electrical box, on one side a return to the "Indexing" street sign takeover seen previously. As well as a new image of the classic Girl Vampire Halloween mask ad but just a little more "fabulous", with added drag makeup and finished off with a bunch of tiny text following the border. When we first spotted these images while driving we could have never guesses that there was another There She Is image still riding on the box! A Suicide Robot that must have been there for months and months, sun bleached and a little torn but still riding strong....well for a dead robot that is!

Defaced

Retuning to the corner of Fremont and 8th, to where D*Face left us this piece from this years Life Is Beautiful festival. This little guy is still hanging in there ok and still broke and hell, but seriously what is the deal with the skulls image capping LaRON Emcee? We've been seeing this artist's stuff everywhere lately, apparently their "art" is covering artwork that isn't their own with a crappy print of a skull. We aren't one to really talk shit on other artwork, well actually that is all we do, but! This is pretty damn ridiculous, why someone would cover a handpainted piece is beyond us. Our guess is that they are trying to make some sorta artistic point, but then again are we just elevating it to a higher level of art theory or something? Well anyway, there are plenty of pieces covered now with these skulls and I'm sure we'll see more.

Unleaded Supreme Leader

This interesting piece from someone called Skyn3t was found on a North Vegas gasoline pump, kind of a weird spot so we had to stop. We found a very familiar image within the world of street art, Kim Jong Un. But with the added flat top hairdo to update his own or this piece? We aren't too sure what they are shooting for to be honest,  But we did find this image curious enough to stop and take and photo. Upon further investigation to see who made this piece we found some familiar images that we've been seeing lately and the artists name RM "Serene". Not really sure what the deal is with the two names but sometimes artists like to keep people just a bit off the scent, hmmm could be right? Well at least we known for certain that we are spotting new artists with new work hitting new spots around town, so lets keep it up people!

Taking Care of Business

Seattle artist Cheyenne Randall came through Las Vegas a few days ago and brought a few pieces with him to get up, and he got up huge! Known mostly for Photoshopping old school tattoos onto celebrities past and present, we knew just what to expect when we heard his name. He certainly didn't disappoint with this giant image of a classic young Elvis and trademark hairdo, but with all the added tattoos and the like. We dig the added touch of the TCB on his ear but the wolf leaves a little to be desired with its placement, but then again we've seen way worse placement and tattoos in real life. This spot seems to get buffed immediately when someone gets up with a piece or tag, we don't know if its the previous artist regulating or not. We did happen to notice that someone tore part of the piece to make it blend with the existing mural, it makes it feel more complete and legit somehow. Be warned if you wanna see this piece, you better get moving cuz they like to keep this wall clean. But this is a damn cool edition to the 18b Arts District, this might be the piece to beat right now!

Double Feature

Street Art duo There She Is and You Killed Me First get up on an electrical box on the corner of Fremont and 6th with some movie inspired pieces. There She is with a pair of images, on one side we have silent movie star Buster Keaton with his signature blank look on his face. While most artists try to paint color and life into their pieces, its interesting to see someone paint the man known as "The Great Stone Face". Her use of black and white paint just solidifies the overall feel of this piece, and that look is just perfect. Joined by some sort of wood nymph of sorts on the other side of the box, maybe we should know this from a movie but, hmmm we can't place it! On the front we have You Killed Me First with a complete movie poster takeover with this tribute to Frankenstein, but now the Monster is in Las Vegas and terrorizing the streets complete with the Vegas skyline, paste bucket and pieces under his arm. We like how he has included with original credits from the film poster, we love little details like that. Cuz honestly, we are just as big of film nerds as these two artists apparently are.

Ransom Face

Chicago artist Lolo Popacopolous (A.K.A Popacop) recently came though Las Vegas, and we've spotted a few of their "Monkey see" stickers around the 18b Arts District. This design is a crazy mashup of imagery that looks like a collaged image that has been inked and painted, this design is pretty interesting all the way around when you first see it. We don't have a clue what its all about but its eyecatching, even at a distance. It looks like this guy is puking illegible strips of text, even though he has a joint in his mouth which must be tough. There are little weird things all over this guy, piercings, a star mustache and teardrop tattoos, baseball cap, a cigarette behind the ear, money for eyes and that quarter on the forehead. With more smudged and illegible text, we don't know what this guy is saying but somehow we are still listening.

Double Vision

Zork returns to the 18b Arts District with two pieces using two different techniques. First a dayglow orange and black spraypaint version of one of his characters, and a red stenciled piece. We've only seen wheatpastes from Zork thus far, so its pretty cool to see them branching out with different mediums. The orange character is painted over an outline of a bear with inverted crosses for eyes, that look just like the cross on this guys forehead. We wonder if this piece was abandoned in the spur of the moment in favor of using this previously seen character? Then we have a stenciled image of a woman wearing a burka, sprayed on the door and signed. This is like a small showcase of skills of sorts, and did he do both of them right in a row? Now that'll keep ya busy on the street, thats for sure!

Buggley Eyes

A new day and another new face from LaRON Emcee, with an addition from another person. We love this new shorter haired character with the added cloud in her hair, it almost looks like a tiara from afar. But we're not sure where people get off adding bullshit to peoples art, like these wonky eyes some idiot penciled in. We are very much into LaRON's pupiless eyeballs in his artwork, so this is kind of a bummer to see this piece defaced. Cuz lets me honest, if it isn't your artwork and you add to it. You are defacing and that is as bad as capping, can someone please catch these "artists" and teach them the rules of the street. Apparently someone needs to be schooled, and soon! Either way LaRON's artwork can stand on its own, he doesn't need your help. 

Doing Lines

We found this interesting new piece on the corner of Casino and California, a organized tangle of painted lines. It looks to be signed with "IE" but we aren't 100% sure who the artist is, then again we didn't search to hard on the net to find out either. But we gotta say we like the simplicity of this piece, lines drawn with care to make sure they don't intersect. The artwork seems almost familiar to us, we've seen a few different artists use lines like this in their own art. We do enjoy the familiarity and this is a welcome change to the streets, maybe this will encourage more abstract art and less pop art. Don't get us wrong, we do enjoy some pop art but its starting to get a little played out. Thank god we haven't seen a Audrey Hepburn piece here in Vegas! ...yet!

Extended Stay

More additions are being added to the boarded up Art Motel from this years Life Is Beautiful festival, this spot has more out of town artists than local at this point too! Kinda cool! First up, San Francisco based artist Strider gets up with a diamond shaped piece of a praying woman in front of flowers. The image of the woman is interesting as it looks like some sort of digital stencil placed on a vectorized flower image, it has sort of a retro feel without relying on nostalgic imagery. Hinting within art is sometimes way more effective, at least to us. Also showing up late to the party, You Killed Me First and There She Is get up with their new pieces. YKMF with paster of the old Life Is Beautiful logo re-appropriated to remind us that in Sin City evil is also beautiful, I'm sure people will love that one. Lastly There She Is who likes to use the same colors to match her partner with her street pieces, she gives us a redhead with purple lips and blue eyes that will meet your gaze from way down the street. As this year comes to a close, the 18b is slowing down with street art and downtown is gaining speed as the location to get up. We wonder if it'll flip again, or will both spots start to even out artwise. We are guessing that only time will tell, and we can't wait!

Express Yourself

Typical Bandito with another new piece in the 18b Arts District, and it seems they are evolving. This latest work involves carefully ripped layers placed on top of each other to make one multicolored and layered piece, with an image of a reclining woman with her body outlined in ink. We really enjoyed finding this Typical Bandito piece and seeing them take their artwork to a new place, be it one layer at a time. Joined by a Zelot 228 of a body with a television we though was interesting enough to photograph, and it looks like Dead Freaks seems to be defacing each Indecline piece with their toppled Anarchy sign symbol, or maybe trying to get their attention? Yeah, good luck with all that!

Official Stickers Only

We found this collection in an alley right off Fremont Street, the same alley from a few posts ago. This location is definitely getting hit harder with stickers and wheatpaste pieces from local and out of town artists. The usual group of Vegas heavy hitters Indecline, Visual Bluff and Dopl are always representing and this sign ain't no different. Joined by Irot, Eastside, Tenr, Hekr and some random tags, this sign is hit pretty hard and we don't see any sign of this spot slowing down. From the stickers on the signs on one side of the alley, to the other being blasted with bigger wheatpaste pieces. We think its safe to say, this spot is catching fire!

Street Testing

We found this series of images that resemble Rorschach tests under the decaying Indecline piece in the 18b. These artist unknown pieces look sorta like someone spray painted some parts or shapes and liked the leftovers, or these could look way different to you depending on your psychological make up. We've been looking pretty hard for anything to post on the building on Coolidge and 1st, you have to read between the lines with all the crap all over that place. Seems like artists are kinda letting their pieces go and hitting other spots since people are just writing their own shit on other peoples art. Sadly the 18b Arts District is rife with spot jackers and people that think adding some bullshit stencil or tag to another artists piece is somehow ok. We've seen one of the same stencils used on these walls in an artists artwork during a First Friday event, in fact they pointed it out to us as we walked by. "This is my artwork!" "Uh, sorry" was our only reply.

18Drama

Los Angeles street brand Dissizit makes an Las Vegas appearance with their Diss Lil Piggy design, sorta. Apparently Dekoe got bummed out recently when his piece got capped by Anilyz Something, so he capped back with this OG Slick piece and what looks like a hastily made tiled piece of his own. His piece had been riding for about 2 months, so its actually not a surprise that it got covered cuz nothing lasts forever. Especially in street art! This type of capping and fighting for space happens daily and even hourly in places with a bigger scene, which leads us to our next question. How would some of these touchy artists fare in bigger cities? You have to work 3 times as hard for space and add people stealing your still wet art off the street and reselling it, or even fistfight in the streets, which does happen way more than you'd think. But in the end, we are glad to see these artists fighting it out cuz this shit gets boring seeing the same art every single week.

Sticky Rice

On a recent dinner outting at Komol Restaurant we noticed a few signs hit with all the local favorites. Like this one with Dan45, Indecline, Aware and others representing the Las Vegas scene. This lead us to the observation that not only do we all share the love of street art and getting up, but apparently a lot of artists and art lovers alike share the same taste in food. It is pretty clear when going out, we spot a lot of the same artists on signs and walls. We wonder how many times different artists have shared the same room without knowing it, or is it all laughs and beers together? Seems like one giant party waiting to happen if timed right, or maybe one huge fight. Who knows?

Poer Sight

When we first started visiting the Las Vegas area, Poer was one of the first artists we noticed on the streets. With their staple black and white image of digital text and hand symbol spelling out their name, a solid image with the artist using an ever revolving variations of the design. It was just the kind of art we enjoyed. Always hitting killer and out of the way spots, so much so that we've never been able to stop and grab a photo til now! In fact, this photo was taken passing by slowly in a car. Found just past the Galleria at Sunset shopping mall in Henderson.

Stuck

We spotted this cluster of tags and stickers in an alley right off Fremont street, right across from this spot to be exact. The tags here aren't anything other than the ordinary, its the stickers that grabbed our attention. This is a cool find to us with this selection of different artists using different techniques, we always enjoy seeing the difference between styles on spots like this. You can see a range of people all wanting to get up, all with unique styles and that is what we love most about street art. A huge selection of artists with different work, skill and technique, all for the love of art and getting it up and out there.

No Credit

Another artist joins the group of out of town street artists on the Art Motel exterior. We are fast becoming fans of Anilyz Something with his clean black and white images and clean placement. This newest piece with its gritty look is definitely a switch of styles and still keeps the original ingenuity and look of his artwork. While we are not usually fans of the black and white prints that a lot of artists use now a days, we are however a fan of strong design and Anilyz Something can bring it! Also, we find it kinda funny that while buffing the tags on this wall they buffed Apexer's name and credit right off the building. Uh, oops!

Pickle Plate

Typical Bandito is back in the 18b with a new piece. A polkadot faced male that looks like an old school club kid or something. Complete with an altered quote from the movie Dirty Dancing. "Put your pickle on everybody's plate, college boy." Yeah ok, we had to look it up cuz, well because it was Dirty Dancing! Interesting choice to use an image of someone other than Patrick Swayze for this piece, instead using a male model seemingly from a fashion magazine. To us, the words somehow hold more weight on top of an otherwise vapid image. Definitely a bright spot on the building on Coolidge and 1st.

Puzzle Action

We found another missing piece of the puzzle, and it was right under our noses the whole time!  Local artist, singer and pizza lover Dan45 has been leaving these mysterious orange puzzle pieces around town. We've spotted a few and wrote about them here and here, but we are kinda in disbelief that this piece was in the 18b and we never saw it! Til now! This guy must have been riding for almost a year in this well hidden (from us) spot, and still looks great for the amount of time and elements its endured. A testimonial to Dan45's artwork and craft, cuz its pretty damn tough to get a piece to be interesting, good AND durable. Kudos!

Big Duke

We spotted a few stickers and tags in a Wal-Mart parking lot of all places, sometimes ya gotta get up when ya shop I guess. But amongst the tags and some random shoe sticker, we spotted the face of Big Duke from Psycho Realm. A Los Angeles rapper who was tragically paralyzed by a gunshot while trying to break up a fight. Kind of a cool image for a tribute to the artist, we wonder who is putting these out? And at Wal-Mart much less, well I mean we did see them, photograph them, and now you're reading about it. So yeah, job well done!

Late Check-In

The now boarded up entrance to the Art Motel from Life Is Beautiful is hosting an art show of its very own, with a growing number of artists hitting this spot. Surrounded by Apexer's beautiful spray paint mural, Voxx Romana, Skam, Drsc0 with a number of unidentified artists all find their perfect place on the makeshift wall. We always love the difference of artwork in a random grouping of street art, from prints to painting to tags to stencils. It seems like we've got a lot of styles all working together to make this spot happen. We wonder if this place with start to gather some strength with more artists joining in, but we guess only time will tell. Hell, these photos are from a few days ago. It might already be gone before we get back out to take more photos, lets hope not!

Sun Scars

LaRON Emcee is back in the 18b with another hand painted wheatpaste piece. Found on the Coolidge and 1st wall above a Milk The Bunny piece that coincidentally has the very same pink in the ears as LaRON's character, and you know we just love a successful unintentional collab like that. A beautiful woman with pink hair with floating clouds, with an added speech bubble that includes a peace sign, a heart and what looks like a Basquiat crown. LaRON's pieces are always very striking on first glance in the streets, with those big pupiless eyes, we are always drawn to them immediately. We especially love the third artist in this unintentional collab, The Sun! Or is the artist (or someone) speeding the aging process by making tears in the piece? Not too sure, but we love how it looks.

Fishing For Culture

We found some new smaller pieces from Recycled Propaganda on 1st in the 18b Arts District the other day.
Known more for being an artist seen at events like First Friday and other events of the like, its a switch to see actual pieces on the street and not some canvas at some store. We love it when artists try to keep their roots in the streets, so its great to see them hitting illegals walls and keeping that shit real. These two pieces are titled Cultural Preservation & Fishing For Likes, pretty standard fare for pseudo political artwork to be honest. While it is hard not to make a Banksy or even Plastic Jesus compression, it is still very much in the same vein of artwork, just a little more diluted then theirs. Using bold colorful images helps them get their message across, while being surrounded by some of the worst graffiti we've ever seen in the 18b or anywhere else! To change the focus for a second, who the fuck is doing all that horrible chicken scratch painting?! Not that 57 piece, we are cool with them but all that shitty text, robot and bad stencils? Just stop whomever you are, you are NOT ready. Not now, maybe not ever!! We hope they buff this wall honestly, and fuck yeah we just said that! Ok back to our post.. With Recycled Propaganda being one of the most prominent artists in Las Vegas, we hope to see them go bigger in the future and keep getting up on illegal walls!

Keep Vegas Weird

Portland, Oregon artists Voxx Romana, Skam and Drsc0 came down for a mission recently and hit quite a few good spots. Like this one between Fremont and Ogden on Las Vegas Blvd is a damn good new spot and we hope it keeps growing with artwork like this. Voxx Romana with an image of Albert Einstein with headphones, swirly eyes and an exposed brain, fun stuff! Keeping it creepy is Skam with one of his detailed stenciled images of a skull complete with an inverted cross. Lastly Drsco with an image that can best be described as a halftoned volcano with different colors shooting from their peaks, the side almost looks like text but is illegible but interesting enough for us to keep staring at it. Three different artists working together with one mission in mind, to get up and stay up! More artists are making a point to stop and hit Las Vegas and its great! Especially when the artwork is as varied and solid as it is here.

Come Together

UncuttArt on the corner of Boulder and 1st with more of his work in the 18b Arts District.  Four oblong heart shaped pasters of Steve Jobs and Micheal Jackson, three yellow and one red. The Micheal one has the added text "All these strange pieces came together to create this beautiful image.... As humans, so can we....". With psychedelic lines drawn through the stock stencil looking images its looks almost from another time, albeit the mandatory celeb images. Still, it is kind of a cool and positive message, which does lend itself to the almost 60's hippie sounding message. But like we said, it does sound positive and we are very much down with that.

Deep Covered

That unknown artist with the shitty Xerox skull images is back and now capping Deep Cover, what is up with that? Deep Cover got up awhile ago on the Western Motel with four of his large "Darth Duck" images, yeah we don't know what else to call them ok? Anyway, killer large black and white pieces from DC that had been riding for a bit now have this amazing addition to them. Four crappy digital images that look like they were made in Microsoft Paint, but hey we'll at least give them props for finding that hue slider bar! Either they don't know the rules of street art or they just started a capping war with Deep Cover, best of luck to ya with that!

Tilt!

We found this cute little dude outside of The Pinball Hall of Fame the other day, hey we gotta have fun sometimes too dammit! Anyway, we found him hanging with a bunch of other stickers on a parking lot pole. We instantly loved the logo and wanted to know who it was, only to find out that its for a band. Which is cool n stuff, we just dig the image on the sticker a whole lot more. The sticker game is pretty damn huge here, you can find from artists to straight out ads stuck all over this town. Some done by hand and some screened by a professional printer, it is always a treat to find one outta the thousands that you enjoy. Like the Nomad SF sticker, we pretty much love that and hell we took our piercings out like 10 years ago! Great finds all over this town, ya just gotta look for em!

Applause

More artwork continues to pop up everyday at Coolidge and 1st, its LaRON Emcee this time with another one of his hand painted pieces. In our time living here we've seen Las Vegas artists really step it up and put in a lot of time with their street art. Some artists in bigger cities like use a lot of prints and/or printed material instead of hand painted pieces, but you can always use the argument that they are getting up in more spots and in a bigger place. Very true and we aren't trying to say one in better than the other by any means, and each person is of course his own artist. It is just one more thing we had to get used to in moving to Vegas, we applaud the time and effort that LaRon puts into his pieces and his love for his craft shows in his work.

Koe Face

Dekoe gets up with one of the many large pieces he has been putting up lately, at least this is one of them that is left. We saw that after he put up another version of this piece on with the other artwork on Charleston and Casino and the entire wall was buffed days after. What a bummer cuz there was some cool street pieces on that wall but it'll return, we are sure of it!  This large red white and blue wheatpaste of his logo on a a multicolored layer of stencils spelling out Dekoe demands your attention, with an added stenciled text that says "Arts District. Not sure if Dekoe added that as well cuz its a complete different typeface, but its an interesting touch as there are signs all around to let you know where the hell you are! Kinda weird... Unless this was just done for social media or repping the 18b or something, we guess that makes sense. But still!

Unheeded

New York artist UncuttArt hit Las Vegas a short while ago, bringing a young Micheal Jackson and Steve Jobs with him. Or at least some black and white copies of their faces with some accompanying text, but I mean does it even matter? Lets see, the Steve Jobs text says "Think Differently" which apparently the artist failed to do by simply using Mac's old slogan, but we must admit it is nice to see an image of Micheal Jackson that doesn't remind us that he was a child molesting weirdo!.....Oh, oops! Well we do enjoy the cool broken image technique that UncuttArt uses on his subjects, it would look pretty damn stunning stenciled big on the wall. Hmmmm, maybe next time?

Destiny Number 6

Anilyz Something has been making their presence bigger and bigger on the streets of Las Vegas. We've apparently spotted and posted a few of their pieces without knowing who it was, but the artists tagged themselves so we can give proper due credit. This newest piece was found on the wall on Coolidge and 1st amongst the buildup of shitty tags and crap artwork, this piece definitely stands out amongst others. A clean black and white printed graphic with surrounding text, with Anilyz Something's trademark skull with lightening hitting its brain. Definitely a cool image that makes you think and spawns conversation within a group, which is precisely what the artist wants us to do! Can't wait to see more images from this artist.

Busted

Life Is Beautiful is over but we still have the artwork living on in the streets, Like this D*Face piece put up while he was in town for this years festival Personally we find these pieces far more interesting than the legal murals, and lucky for us D*Face likes to put up an assortment of artwork when asked to do a mural. We've seen him do street pieces outside of his shows that have been just as intricate as anything inside the gallery, there would be a show, a mural and different street pieces. Him taking these extra steps keeps him absolutely legit in the street art world, even now that he has moved onto such bigger and worldwide medium. Plus quality can and does go a long damn way and that is precisely what D*Face has in his artwork. Quality!

Street Magic

We know, we know! Another post about that damn Banksy "Mobile Garden" truck?!?! Just bare with us and let us take another look at the infamous piece that paid a visit to this years Life Is Beautiful festival, and for a reason dammit! When we heard a piece from Banksy would be making an appearance we made a point to try to have a private visit, and luckily we got the chance the night before the festival started and snapped a few bad photos. When we came across the piece we hit the Internet to double check it was the same truck and low and behold it was! All of the same tags were all there, all the same colors and little details were all correct, and then!.. We noticed the entire truck had been sealed with some sort of finish coat or sealant. Upon first glance it looks just like another truck with various tags all over it but apparently great care has been taken to ensure it will look the same at each viewing. We watched the collection of stickers and random tags it would receive each night the festival was open, then to return to find it magically restored each morning. All of it! Wow, that is some damn impressive forethought to be able to resurrect your piece in a pure state each day! Kudos to Banksy, now you know why he/they make the big bucks!

Deco Tribe

We found this Typical Bandito piece under the pink hippo from our previous post, this black & white female classic nude image with the text "I want this, I want you".  We gotta admit the more we see of Typical  Bandito's street pieces, the more we are eager to seek them out. There is just something that catches our eyes when we see these pieces on the street, with delicate and subtle added lines and different color accents to compliment each piece. Like this woman with her 20's reminiscent haircut and painted white lines that almost feel like a beautiful art deco from a tribal village that has gone undiscovered til now. A very fun and imaginative piece for sure, found in the 18b Arts District.

Pink Hippo

We found another hippo looking character roaming the streets of Las Vegas. This piece has been seen in a few places around town, this recent one was found in the 18b. This unknown artist went way larger this time with their piece and it really looks great with the addition of the bright pink color. Looking quite tranquil surrounded by art and tags, we really enjoy this piece. Placed in a chaotic setting and its eyes closed in disregard to it all, it (whatever it is) gives off a calming and soothing effect that we really enjoy. 

Maus Haus

Strych9 brings us another piece of his artwork to the 18b Arts District. An old hospital X-ray with a stenciled image of Adolph Hitler with the head of Mickey Mouse, complete with the Sieg Heil salute in an attempt to further his point and meaning. Which I guess, is pretty damn open to interpitation to us. He could mean an entire world of of possibilities with this piece, but we have yet to crack the code.  

Down The Capper

We've seen a few of these sideways anarchy signs around town and over other artists pieces, like on this Deep Cover piece in the 18b and were wondering who it was. Well they left their social media calling card on this tiled 228, and it makes us wonder how well this kinda stuff would go over in a bigger city with a bigger scene. Being transplants from Los Angeles we can tell ya, it wouldn't. It seems all these newer artists have no idea what the rules of the street are, or that there are even rules for street art! Well, I mean...their logo is an anarchy sign now isn't it? 

Illegal Is Beautiful

Another year of Life Is Beautiful brings another round of new legal murals, which is always pretty cool.
But the best thing is that most muralists started as street artists, so that means they also wanna get up with different pieces other than their murals. Like this D*Face we found walking the Life Is Beautiful grounds last night, sticking with his Vegas chip theme we find that this year that the little guy crapped out. With D*Face logos falling outta his turned out pockets, with little touches like one logo landing on the sidewalk we understand why D*Face continues to rise in the art world. You can really see and understand the quality of his artwork when you see it in a street art environment, like we said we always enjoy the huge murals. But smaller and more intimate piece like this are always gonna be the true winners with us, stay tuned for more 2015 Life Is Beautiful posts!

Twins

Another Typical Bandito piece spotted in the 18b Arts District, this time on Charleston and Casino. This poster featuring two pornstars from Vivid Entertainment Group had been hand painted painted and their facial features exaggerated. The bodies have been painted reminiscent of tribal tattoo artwork, with added delicate flower looking designs and some interesting sliced bodies in there. They have a sort of 80's feel to them, with the bright colors and line work through their hair. They are a very interesting pair and fun piece that brings color and life to the streets of Las Vegas. 

Street Totem

We recently came across these 3 heads in a row in the 18b Arts District, growing more as time passes they are turning into some sorta street art totem. The first we saw was the There She Is hand painted Sophia Loren piece with her disapproving look, then a mongoloid looking unknown artist Jimi Hendrix stencil popped up next. Lastly Typical Bandito with one of his hand finished pieces. Surrounded by tags and a multitude of artists, this collab keep giving as people add new faces. Can't wait to see who will be next to join their ranks.

Like Flies On....

Some call the building on Coolidge and 1st an amazing piece of art with the growing collection of different artwork on it. But to us, it looks like something else and its starting to gather flies. Of course there are standout pieces all over the building but the amount of poor quality art is starting to take over. These little blue artist unknown flies are a great edition and give an unspoken commentary about street art in the 18b Art District. I mean, if you completely read into things like we like to do! 

Pink Face, Yellow Flower

We've spotted a few of these new little guys on the streets lately, not sure who the artist is but damn it is cute! Somehow it reminds of us a happy little Hippo face taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers, which is kinda weird cuz this corner box usually smells like bum piss. This corner of 7th and Stewart is gaining momentum with artists hitting it with new pieces all the time, this scene is on the rise!

Phone Home

More artwork from photographer/street artist Crummy Gummy's recent visit to Las Vegas, this piece we spotted in the 18b is entitled "E.T. No Home". It is a sharp printed photography image, this time the artists focus is Neca's 2012 Telepathic E.T. action figure. Adding touches like the I Love New York shirt, signature on the flower pot and the "ACTOR 4 HIRE" text on his Speak and Spell really make this a fun piece to see on the street. These recent pieces from CG raise the bar for Vegas street art with their quality and clean execution, so everyone take note, go back out and get up! 

Face Bones

There has been an explosion of artwork in the 18b in the past few months and its been a mixed bag of quality to be sure. From established street artists to first timers spraying their first hurried stencils, but this piece seems to be collab from two of the latter artists. A sprayed face surrounded by a stencil of skull and bones surrounding it to... I guess help disguise those can skills, we're guessing. So damn, it might be one artist after all, just using two techniques poorly. But that is an interesting circle bone effect around the stencil, kinda cool.

Princess Charming

We've been seeing Typical Bandito street pieces on Instagram for awhile but we haven't seen on in person, til now. We gotta say, its been worth the wait! This black and white phonograph of Bette Davis titled Stereotypical Temper, with painted delicate lines and bright colors is beautiful. Spotting these pieces is like finding hidden gems on the street to us. After seeing and photographing street art for as long as we have, you tend to get burnt on certain styles that are being rehashed to the nth degree. Thank you Typical Bandito, keep getting up!

Free Bed Bugs!

Photographer/street artist Crummy Gummy gets up in the 18b Arts District with a fun and colorful digitally printed image of Chairy, Pee Wee Herman's beloved chair and buddy on his show. Looks like you get a little more than you asked for if you take Chairy home though, a bed bug infestation! But hey, at least Crummy Gummy let us know beforehand with a sign. Looks like Milk the Bunny got a little unsolicited collab action with a thought bubble riding above CG's piece, its always interesting how different artists can either love or hate additional artwork added to their own. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, we think this one does but we can't really answer for CG.

Stuck Up Posse

LaRON Emcee's collection of Gary Everywhere on the corner of Coolidge and 1st has had some new recruits added. Obviously not from LaRON's collection, this is a whole new set of people adding their mark. A couple of tag stickers, some new faces and a Jim Jones pisstake on the old Andre the Giant Has a Posse sticker. This little spot was completely dead for a bit til LaRON hit it, now its back strong! Awesome!